Once More Into the Void.

At least one reader has expressed slight confusion at what has actually happened to my thumb joint.

Righto then, inside the wrist/thumb joint there are several bones, one of which is called the trapezium and looks like this:

In my poor old hand, this bone had become deformed due to the action of osteo-arthritis, a nasty little disease that attacks bone causing it to develop 'spurs' and also holes in the bone. There are several ways of dealing with this from the medical practitioners point of view, in the early stages supportive splints can bring relief from the pain. Later on in the progress of the disease injections of steroids into the synovial capsule of the joint can reduce swelling and give relief. I had around three years of these treatments (hypodermic right through the back of the hand anyone? I thought not!) Eventually the medic/patient may opt for surgery to remove the troublesome bone.

Again there are several possible methods of doing this, some of which involve replacing the trapezium with cartilage harvested from somewhere else in the body or even inserting metal pins to hold things together. In my case the consultant used a technique which removes the trapezium bone and leaves a void where it used to be. This void naturally fills with scar tissue and the joint (after much physiotherapy) returns to around 90 - 95 % of it's original strength and mobility. Plenty enough for those overdriven Chuck Berry licks then although I was warned that I would probably never be able to emulate the styles of Mr. Vai or Mr. Satriani. So you see, there are some VERY positive aspects to the whole thing.

So, to sum up here are before and after x-rays - not mine I hasten to add - the medical profession regard any data about, or surplus parts of ones body as their own - they wouldn't even give me the bone to make a necklace out of. In fairness, this was because they didn't actually take it out in one nice hit like in the video at the beginning of this blog, rather removing it in little bits with a chisel.









Now ya see it................ Now ya don't.

Got that? There will be a test next week.

Current Pain Rating: 6